Bills planning summer practices with Steelers

Buffalo and Pittsburgh are planning joint practices this Summer in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.

It’s not set in stone as part of their training camp schedule, but there are tentative plans in place for the Bills to practice against the Steelers this summer in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. That according to head coach Doug Marrone, who spoke about the plans in an interview with the John Murphy Show Tuesday morning at the league meetings in Orlando.

“We talked about that,” said Marrone. “Last year, that came up, but the first year was tough. It’s something that I’ve done before, it’s something that I truly like, I truly believe in it.”

The Bills, who last practiced against another NFL club in 2005 with the Green Bay Packers, believe both teams can benefit from working against another team in the practice setting instead of their own teammates in training camp.

“We are looking for certain things and things that Coach Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers bring to the table that would help us,” Marrone said. “I think there are things we can do that help them prepare for the season.”

At this point the only logistics standing the way of finalizing the Bills-Steelers inter-squad practices is the NFL’s preseason schedule, which is something Bills President & CEO Russ Brandon was trying to iron out with the league at the meetings this week.

“We’ve talked about the schedule of what we’re going to do, when we practice together,” said Marrone. “Russ Brandon brought that to the attention of the league. We’d like to make sure we can get them on the schedule, if we have them in the preseason. If we do we’ll alternate every year. This year we’ll plan on going there. The following year they’ll come up to St John Fisher and to back and forth. I think it could be a very good working relationship for both teams.”

If the plans do come to fruition for this summer, the Steelers will reciprocate in 2015 and travel to practice at St. John Fisher next year.